Tara Brach - Meditation: Discovering Inner Space

Episode Date: August 29, 2019

Meditation: Discovering Inner Space - By imagining the space inside the body, we discover the continuous space of awareness that is the source and essence of all aliveness. This meditation is adapted from Open Focus Meditations led by Les Fehmi, Ph.D. in The Open Focus Brain.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. You might feel the breath and take a few very conscious long deep breaths, inhaling deeply now, and then a slow-out breath. Feel the sensations of releasing the breath, letting go, letting go, and then inhaling again, inhaling.

deeply, filling the lungs. Hold the breath for a moment so you can feel that fullness. And then again, slowly exhale. Slowly enough so you can feel the sensations of releasing the breath, aware of releasing, relaxing outward, letting go. And one last time, a nice full deep in breath, filling the lungs, and then holding the breath for a moment. As you hold the breath, let the shoulders relax back and down so there's a stretch across the chest. Feel the fullness. Slowly exhaling, relaxing, softening down the length of the body, letting go. Letting the breath come into a natural rhythm now, a relaxed attention with the breath.

Letting the senses be awake so you can also be aware of the sounds around you. aware of the sensations of aliveness through the body, aware of whatever mood you might be experiencing, whatever feelings or emotions in the heart area. As we listen to our heart, to the state of our heart, we listen inwardly for our intention, just to feel your intention for tonight, listening with that sincerity that lets you contact what really matters to you.

What really matters as you practice this evening, as you meditate, as you contemplate? Tonight's guided practice will be a particular kind of meditation that opens the attention towards an open awareness. But we begin, as we often do, by just sensing if there's any areas of particular tightness or tension in the body. So you might just scan through and see if you can soften a little in the shoulders, ice to water, kind of melting and water to gas, just loosening, softening the hands, feel the life from the inside, and relaxing the belly so that this next breath is received in a softening belly, this breath? And then this one.

And again, you might sense the image of a smile and just let it spread through the eyes. See if you could smile into the eyes. Letting the brow be smooth, flesh around the eyes relaxed. The form of this meditation will be a question. I'll be asking a repeated question, can you imagine? And just let whatever spontaneous response emerge

in your heart, mind. There's no requirement. Just relax, listen, attend. And we begin with the question, can you imagine the space between your eyes? Can you imagine the space between your eyes? Can you imagine the space that fills the nasal passages? Can you imagine the space that is inside the tongue

that fills the tongue? You imagine the space inside the upper palate, the gums, the teeth. You imagine the space inside the lower palette, the gums, the teeth, sensing a slight smile inside the mouth. Can you imagine the space that fills the lower lip? Imagine the space that fills the upper lip. Can you imagine the space that fills the whole mouth simultaneously, lips, gums, teeth,

tongue? Can you imagine the space behind your forehead? the frontal lobes of the brain, frontal cortex. Can you imagine the space inside the back of the skull? Can you imagine the space that fills the whole head, including the eyes, the space between the ears, mouth, brain? You imagine sensing the throat, widening to fill the whole neck area. Can you imagine the space inside the neck?

the space inside the shoulders. Can you imagine the distance between the shoulders? You imagine the distance between the shoulders and the elbows, the awake space inside the upper arm. Can you imagine the distance between the elbows and the wrists, the space that fills the lower arm? Can you imagine the space that fills the thumb, letting the hands rest very easy and effortlessly? Can you imagine the space that fills the forefinger? Imagine the space between the thumb and the forefinger. Can you imagine the space inside the middle finger? Can you imagine the space inside the ring finger?

Can you imagine the space inside the small fingers? Can you imagine a space that fills all the fingers, including the spaces between the fingers, including the flesh and bone? Can you imagine the space between the palms and the backs of the hands? Now can you feel and imagine the space inside the whole hand simultaneously, fingers, palms, bones, flesh? Can you imagine the space inside the hands and the arms and the shoulders? Can you imagine the space that fills the heart?

Can you imagine the space that fills the lungs? Can you imagine the distance between the breath, bone and the spine. You imagine the distance between the two sides of the chest. Can you imagine the space that fills the whole chest simultaneously, including the heart, the lungs? Can you imagine the distance between the navel and the spine? Can you imagine the distance between the two sides of the waist? Can you imagine the distance between the navel and the base of the spine. Can you imagine the space that fills the whole belly? Can you imagine the distance between the hip joint and the knee, the space that fills the upper leg? You imagine the distance between

the knee and the ankle, the space inside the lower leg. Can you imagine the space that fills the big toe? You imagine the space that fills all the toes, the spaces between them, the bone, and flesh. Can you imagine a space between the bottom of the feet, soles of the feet, and the top of the feet? You imagine simultaneously the space that fills the feet, toes, flesh, bone. You imagine the space that fills the feet, the ankles, and the legs. Can you imagine the space that fills the whole body simultaneously? Can you imagine that space extending out in the in front of you infinitely to pass the furthest stars.

Can you imagine the space that extends behind you infinitely? Past the further stars. Can you imagine the space that extends out to either side? Infinitely, past the further stars. Can you imagine the space that extends beneath you through earth and beyond and beyond past the furthest stars? Can you imagine the space that extends above you, upward and outward, past the further stars.

Can you imagine this space that fills your body and this infinite space that extends in all directions is continuous, one continuous space? Imagine the experience of this one continuous space, the space inside you, the impact space around you as it's experienced at the heart, continuous space at the heart. Can you imagine that all beings, one awake, experience the same continuous heart space, belong to the same continuous heart space? Can you imagine in the silence now just letting go and being that continuous heart space?